By Lea Fainer

Reports have been coming into Compli involving a scam that you should avoid. An email is sent from the scammer requesting to purchase wine for an upcoming party or wedding event. It is purchased with a stolen credit card number.  The scammer lives outside of the US, and so he or she gives the winery the name and email address of a wine shipper that they are “registered with” and have used successfully in the past.

If the winery contacts the wine shipping company, the wine shipping company will acknowledge the request and ask for details on the quantity and types of wine. Subsequently the shipping company states that it is unable to run credit cards and requests that the winery wire thousands of dollars to prepay for the shipping. You see where this is going…

Don’t do it. Enough said.

Tips on how to detect this scam:

-Faulty grammar and punctuation

-The name of the “shipping company” changes slightly throughout the email

-The “shipping company” cannot be located in an online search

-The initial email from the “prospective buyer” may not specify a specific a type or vintage of wine, and include a general comment like, “I love the taste”.